THE HERD - HOUR 1 - BREAKING NEWS: BEARS MAKE A HUGE TRADE!

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Oh, what was a mundane Thursday is now show of the week potential. It is Thursday. It's the herd. We're live. Congrats to the Milwaukee Brewers. We'll get to that. We start our show today with a massive trade deadline is two weeks. The smart teams, the Seahawks and the Niners in the NFC, went and got a great O-lineman, a great defensive tackle, and now the third best team in the NFC, and that could be the NFL, Chicago. They got the best roster in Chicago since the 85 Bears.

They just went and got... The closest thing to Reggie White and Aaron Donald in the NFL in a long time. Jeffrey Simmons, number one in everything at defensive tackle. And we know defensive tackles are the ones quarterbacks struggle with because they get to your feet. Tom Brady didn't have trouble with edge rushers. He didn't want anybody screwing with his feet. Now, the Bears give up two first-round picks and a fourth. Slow down, chill out. The Bears now draft near the bottom of rounds. End of the first round, nobody wants those picks. Honestly, nobody. Because you have a second-round talent, and you've got to pay a first-round price.

The Bears drafted 25th last year. That's the first year with Ben and Caleb. So you better load up on the great players now, because you're going to be drafting at the end of rounds. Bears don't make this move unless they think they can win the Super Bowl. So Simmons is under contract for a couple of years. It's not one of those situations where you've got to bring up the Brinks truck. He is number one at everything. Sacks, hits, fumbles caused, pressures. He is dominant. He is Aaron Donald.

He is what you rarely see on defense. He is what they call a force multiplier. So he gets more double teams than anybody in the league. It's very Aaron Donald, and that allows everybody else to eat, everybody else to flourish. And what's great for the Bears, they're bringing back Montez Sweat this week, and they add Jeffrey Simmons. So they may go find an edge rusher, but this team now has 10 to 12 elite players, and the best player they have right now may not be the quarterback. It may be Jeffrey Simmons. He's that dominant. So Ryan Pold, this Bears defense this year is interesting. Statistically, it's not bad, right?

But it's a lot of smoke and mirrors. They're young in the secondary. They're injured in the secondary. So they get pressure with creativity and schemes from Dennis Allen. Failed as a head coach, great defensive coordinator. So they are fourth right now in the NFL, the Bears are, in blitz rate, meaning they got to take big swings and big risks on the back end to get pressure. Don't have to do that anymore. So I like their young secondary guys. I really do. But they take big risks to get pressures. And you leave yourself vulnerable on that.

Now you don't have to do it. So this is one of these moves. I've been on this for years. I like my GMs to be aggressive. Jeffrey Simmons in the last two years is number one in every one of these categories. Sacks, quarterback hits, pressures, forced fumbles, tackles, and he's over the last two years, he has been double-teamed more than any defensive tackle. Second most double-teamed player in the NFL this season. So you don't watch the Titan games. Everybody knows he's good. He's better than you think.

And again, within 10 minutes of this trade happening, think about this. For a defensive player, within 10 minutes of this deal being done, the Bears' Super Bowl odds catapulted. They're now tied with Seattle. So I did my Super Bowl bubble slash Super Bowl cauldron yesterday where I had San Francisco and Seattle in the middle. Closest to the middle are Super Bowl teams. We put the Bears, who are playing Seattle... Next to him. Here's Albert Breer actually yesterday on the Bears being in the defensive tackle market.

There's a little bit of a crowded market for D tackles. And like you said, they could add an edge as well. Montez Sweat, they get him back off of the suspended list this week. They're able to win two games without him. They've forever been looking for somebody to put opposite him.

This is a real game changer. This is a because you got to be careful about stats defensively. For instance, the Bears run the ball very well. So their defense is usually rested. That helps. There's some good defense in the NFL with bad offenses. You know, sometimes you get offenses that score quickly in the defense on the field and gets fatigued. So now you've got the run game of the bears, which helps the defense. You're bringing back two defensive tackles, including the best by a long shot.

We've only had four or five defensive tackles, you know, in my lifetime, like Reggie white, Aaron Donald, Chris Jones had a couple of years where you could move him around. Jeffrey Simmons, They change odds. They force you to change your offensive game plan. So this is massive. By the way, Tennessee, it's the right move. Tennessee getting first round picks. It doesn't matter. They'll have theirs. Then later, Tennessee's got to rebuild.

They're one of those rare NFL teams you look at and go like Arizona. Oh, they need like seven players. Raiders are like that. You look at the Raiders. You're like, oh, they're pretty good, but they need another seven players. If you want to compete with Seattle and the Bears and the Niners, the top teams. Big, big, big stuff.

All right.

The easiest team. My wife texted me last night. Are you happy the Brewers won the World Series? I said, yeah, they're easy to root for. Grateful and humble and fun and young. It's like watching a college World Series game in terms of their youth and their appearance and the dugout. So Milwaukee is 28th in home runs, 19th in payroll, only two All-Stars. Like the New York Knicks, analytics did not think they would win. And they rolled like the Knicks.

Everybody hit. Remember the Dodgers series? None of the Dodgers could hit. Everybody hit. All their young stars. Jackson Turio hit. 458. Cooper Pratt is hitting. 421. Jacob Mizorowski last night, five and two-thirds scoreless. I mean, everybody hit. And it's very rare in sports when you're easily the best team and the hottest team, and yet you're kind of viewed as a pressureless underdog. Nobody talked about Milwaukee. I mean, people talk more about the Cubs, the closest major league baseball team to Milwaukee. Nobody talked about them. So you have none of the pressure and all of the talent, and you're on fire. It has a little Indiana Hoosiers, 16-0 last year for the national championship. We're all paying attention

to Ohio State, paying attention to Miami, paying attention to Indiana's really good. And so you play a much more freestyle athletically when you don't have that pressure. And talk about hot. They've won 26 of 31 games the Brewers did. Think about that. They won 26 of their last 31 games, mostly against playoff teams. And the Rays are good. I mean, the Rays are the only team statistically close this year to Milwaukee. And I'm watching that game yesterday in like the fifth, sixth, seventh inning, and I'm like, Tampa looks completely overwhelmed. They looked completely overwhelmed. And so much of what the Brewers did, it's not surprising their managers, a former college baseball coach, so much of what they did

was fundamentals. It was an easy team to root for because they did what we were all told in Little League to do. Don't swing for the fence. Move the runner over. Bunt. Steal a baseball. A defined bullpen. I mean, they were the only team in baseball this year with more stolen bases than home runs. And then you get to the World Series, and they had nine stolen bases and three home runs. That's who they are. It's not a shtick. It's not a weird trend. That's what they are. Bunt, steal bases, get on base. And I got to tell you something. A lot of baseball teams, these big market teams like the Yankees, you get trapped with a bad contract, like Giancarlo Stanton for the Bombers. These guys don't have

anything resembling a bad contract. everybody's yet to go into their prime, just entering their prime. Mizorowski next year is going to make 800 grand. Do the Yankees pay their bad boys that? I mean, 800 grand. It's unbelievable. And they have the number one farm system. So like the Seahawks at Draftwell, you don't have to worry about going on the market and overpaying. And isn't it nice to have a baseball team that's not defined by whip? and exit velocity, and launch angle. I don't watch sports for math.

I want young, energy, fun, humble, grateful, relentless. Launch angle, exit velocity, I'm not interested. Yeah, I couldn't get out of math class fast enough. And I think it's interesting. They steamrolled, they bulldozed the Dodgers, but they do remind me of an L.A. fast food chain, In-N-Out. Burgers, cheeseburgers, fries.

This is what we do. And what they do is fundamental. A lot of these analytically driven teams have a formula. The Brewers have a foundation. Great farm system. Humble roster. No bad contracts. Completely selfless. The easiest World Series champ to root for in a long, long time. And here's Pat Murphy after the win.

When you talk about this team, you've got to talk about people who care about each other. They're not worried about their own stats. No one cares about that. They care about coming together and winning tonight.

And that's what we did. Win tonight.

About 112 times. I can't be more grateful for this group of guys right here.

Really, really special. You know, there's nothing better in this business. An hour before the show, you get a big breaking news trade. So the Chicago Bears have landed Jeffrey Simmons for a couple of firsts and a later pick. Again, this is an organization now that's going to draft near the bottom of rounds, which is no man's land. And the other thing is with these young GMs, I think Ryan Poles looked at this. He's a young GM. Everybody for the Bears is young. The coach, the GM, the quarterback, the roster. It's a very young organization. And I think he looked at this, and they're playing Seattle in the game of the week. And what did Seattle do? Seattle just added the best guard in the league. And Montez

Sweat's coming back. They're like, we're going to add the best defensive tackle. I think sometimes when you get to the top of any business, you're really not competing against very many people. You're competing against, if you're the Bears today, the Niners and the Seahawks. That's what you're competing against.

You're not competing against the Packers. Packers roster isn't close to this. Minnesota's got a five, nine and a half quarterback. They're not going to make the NFC championships. So to me, this is once you get really, really good, you start competing against a very finite number of teams. And I think Seattle and San Francisco, smart, aggressive GMs make a move.

And Ryan Pohl's like, I'm not sitting here. I got Caleb Williams. I mean, you never know the health of quarterbacks. You never know the health of your team. J-Mac says this often. There's a saying, strike when the iron's hot. This is the time right now for the Bears to go for it. And you may not watch the Titans.

Simmons is unblockable. He's like Aaron Donald, unblockable. You have to double-team him, and there'll be times you double him and have a chip. So it really is a force multiplier. He forces you to change your offensive, your audibles, your blocking schemes. And there's just not many defensive guys. Jalen Carter can do that with Philadelphia at times. Max Crosby, if you know... And at times just creates, you have to think about a chip block. So it's a big day in Chicago. Huge.

How are you feeling?

You ready to come back out here for the Super Bowl in February at SoFi, obviously? Listen, Colin, this is a guy you have to come into a playoff game game planning for.

Oh, no question.

And I think the moves that we've seen made. Everybody loves wide receivers and running backs and tight ends. Colin, what were the three big moves this week?

Two defensive tackles.

And a guard.

That's what the smart teams are doing. They prioritize the trenches first.

You build ball out, not sideline in.

Listen, man, this is, and I think this Bears-Seahawks game on Monday night is a massive, you should just stay on the West Coast. We should parachute into your former hometown and watch that one.

That's going to be a great game.

So after adding Simmons, the Bears now have five players with seven plus pressures this season. Only the Seahawks have more. So again, Ryan Poles looks at it and thinks, who am I competing against? It's not the NFC North. Lions can't stop anybody. Packers don't have this personnel. Minnesota doesn't have an offense. They're not competing against the NFC North.

They are looking west to the Niners and the Seahawks. The greater you get, the fewer people you compete against. And right now, Chicago's at the top of this league.

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Now entering the No Bull Zone, sponsored by Credible. Great rates, none of the bull. Anytime you have a scarcity of something, it becomes more valuable and often more expensive. There is a scarcity of, at any one time in my life, of great defensive tackles in the NFL. The NFL draft gives you, on average, a great defensive tackle every other year.

A great quarterback every year. So there's even more scarcity at defensive tackle than there is quarterback there's a lot of edge rushers the draft gives you five or six a year that can play so the bears getting jeffrey simmons there's just not a lot of jeffrey simmons out there i mean it's like jeffrey simmons jalen carter aaron donald chris jones there's a reason all of you can name the best defensive tackles in the league the last five years you know quinn and williams there's not many of them there's a 10 15 really good edge rushers this next draft has four more you'll like So the other thing that Ryan Poles, my belief with Ryan Poles, is something we talk about a lot. There's a reason they're cliches. They're true. Strike when the iron's hot. We

thought the Rams were going to be great. They're 3-4, lots of injuries. Miles Garrett's not even practicing. Strike when the iron's hot. The Lions, good. Not as good as I thought. Defense, still don't trust it. Vikings, worst offense in the league. I don't care about their record. San Francisco, excellent.

But the injuries are piling up, and we're not even close to Thanksgiving yet. And the NFC East... has fallen apart outside of the giants and they're on their third quarterback and the nfc south nobody can take seriously so you're sitting there thinking what's in our way an old san francisco team and the seahawks and we're going to size them up because we play them monday so i i it's not just that jeffrey simmons is great there's a lot of great players in this league But you can argue the Rams are going to overpay for Miles Garrett, who's not healthy. I mean, they had a decent edge rusher, Jared Versch, when they let him go. There is no other Jeffrey Simmons right now in the league. There's nothing

else like it. Jalen Carter is probably the closest thing. And so I think that's part of you say, oh, two first round picks. I like what I'm seeing in the NFL right now. Stop throwing the money at wide receivers. The draft gives you 15 new ones a year. It doesn't give you defensive tackles. It doesn't give you great guards.

That's not what it gives you. And statistically, quarterbacks go talk to Brady or Manning or any of these guys. They'll all tell you they don't mind great edge rushers. You can step up. Brady Manning, they don't worry about a Bosa. What they worry about is Jeffrey Simmons at your feet. That stuff's tough. The last seven Super Bowl champs, 7-4-7 elite defensive tackle play. So sometimes you have to do it with two or three players. With Jeffrey Simmons, you can do it with one. But it is, you know, I mean, I said my favorite moves by any team this offseason is It was, oh, I love the Giants getting picks, but more I love the Bengals getting Dexter Lawrence.

And it has changed the Bengals defense. Old Dexter Lawrence, who's he's good. He's not Jeffrey Simmons. But that was the one move I said I love. And I don't love the Bengals a lot outside of Borough. I'm like, that's the way to do it. So big, big day in the NFL. Jeffrey Simmons, two, and the Titans, they need players. They don't need one great player. They need seven new players. I have no problem with them making this move. I think it's smart, actually. Every team's on a different timeline, has a different window. Bears are in the Super Bowl window. Titans are in the rebuild window.

Nice move by them to get multiple first-round picks. Here's J-Mac with the news.

Turn on the news.

This is the Herdline News.

Well, let's start with the Lakers, Colin.

They bounced back with a nice win last night without Luka Doncic.

Doncic.

He had, quote, back tightness. The guy who just took out an ad in the L.A. Times last week saying, yeah, no nights off, took a night off with a back tightness.

I got no problem with it. Again, you just talked about NFL being smart.

Hey, we saw Anthony Edwards on the second night of a back-to-back. Knee is basically just like, oh, you need surgery. There's no need to force it. Lakers get the win without Luka. Quinton Grimes, South Bay's finest, was excellent with 23. You know, I had a buddy at the game. His story was Colin Sexton was just an absolute animal, a terror on defense.

That's his thing. Colin Sexton, I know the story. That'll be fine. You know, he's a role player, but that's good.

But that's what you need.

That's right.

You fit your role.

You know, that could have been Bronny if he had wanted to be a tenacious defender. Colin Sexton, a highly touted college and high school player.

Lakers improved to 4-1. The Clippers are bad. We know that. But, yeah, any thoughts on Luka not playing this early in the season, Colin?

No, I mean, it's been defined what he is. LeBron James very early in his career defined what he is. 44 minutes every night, both ends. He developed into a better shooter. He was always a good leader. Luka, it's been established. I always say he's a better version of Carmelo Anthony. He's not going to play on the defensive end.

He's got a game that's all-time great from certain spots on the floor. Never in the greatest shape. And I think, you know, I've told you this. This is not going to be a 22-year career. You're going to get about 13 to 14 years. I mean, the Carmelo age very quickly.

Why?

Not in great shape. You get injured more. I think you have to bake in with Luca. Can I get 68 games in the regular season? And will he be healthy for every playoff game? Because in the playoffs, you get more rest. Everybody's rested equally. So if I get 68 out of Luka, by the way, they have scorers here.

It's an offensive coach. They're a great half-court offense. They won last night without him. But you've got to give me 68. I can't have 58 or 44. You've got to get me up towards 70.

All right, let's move back to the NFL.

And Lamar Jackson practiced in full yesterday, which is great news for the Ravens. And it sounds like there's going to be no hindrance for him and he's.

Going to go.

The line has come down from three and a half to Bills favored by three. Interesting numbers on Lamar. So he's played 14 quarters and the Ravens have scored 14 touchdowns. He has missed 14 quarters, and in those that he's missed, they have five touchdowns. Not a shocker, but Snoop Huntley, who we all like, is just not that guy. This is a huge game for the Ravens, who, after the loss last week, they were a game behind in the division.

Now you've got to face Josh Allen off a bye, fully rested. I like Buffalo here and I thought major awesome things for the Ravens this season, Colin. But you see without him, I mean, is he going to be 100 percent coming back off the ankle?

So there was one team this year that I said I liked and I respect, but I thought the number was weird. They were the number one over under team in the league. And I kept saying rookie head coach, first time play caller. Lamar's off an injury. Lamar didn't look as fast. And they moved off some players like Tyler Linderbaum, who I loved. And it's like Vegas is like 11 and a half. Well, what we've also discovered is Cincinnati with Dexter Lawrence. Cincinnati's good. Cleveland, you could say they're overachieving, but they've hit on so many draft picks.

They're a tough out. And Pittsburgh is a very, you know, we know this, very high floor, lower ceiling. So the idea, this is not the NFC South. You're going to split your division games. So I just didn't, I thought the numbers should have been closer to, you know, nine and a half, ten. I thought they were a nine to ten win team. First of all, they hired a defensive coach.

Don't love it. But a rookie defensive coach. That's a roll of the dice. So I didn't think they'd be this, but I think we all have to acknowledge, too, Cleveland's actually pretty good.

They're not bad.

This is what's troubling. So you have a loss to the Saints on the ledger.

That's a killer.

Colin, at Buffalo is difficult.

Jacksonville on a short week is not going to be easy.

That's a very good team. Chargers will give them the win there.

But you still have Houston, which is plucky, and then Steelers twice or rivalry games.

Look what happens. Every team they play For the rest of the year, if not a playoff team, we'll be battling for the playoffs.

Right.

You look and you say, except the Charger game. You say Carolina. Carolina's battling because only one team's coming out of the NFC South. Oh, Tampa.

Well, no, they're fighting for the division.

That's what I'm saying. Only one playoff team's coming out of the NFC South. So you look at those games like Carolina and Tampa. Those teams, they are fighting for the one playoff spot because the NFC North could have three teams. We know the NFC East and the NFC South are going to have one team So the only game on here you're like, okay, it's the Chargers, who, by the way, with Harbaugh and Justin Herbert, you know, it's not a layup.

Yeah.

Even a guy like Isaiah Likely, moving off Likely and keeping Andrews. Isaiah Likely on the Giants looks awesome, does he not? He's like a major target. And Mark Andrews, you know, he had a couple drops against the Falcons.

I don't know, man.

I'm disappointed in Baltimore. I'll just leave it at that.

Final story, Colin.

Let's go to the Minnesota Vikings. One of the best stories in the league. Last unbeaten.

They go to Detroit this weekend. Huge game on Fox. And Justin Jefferson's becoming an interesting subplot. He's kind of having a down year. He only has 23 catches. He did miss a game with an ankle. Averaging a career-low 60 receiving yards per game. Is that about the quarterback? Yesterday, Jefferson made it clear he don't care about stats and numbers.

This is what he cares about.

Obviously, you want to have high production. Obviously, you want to be in the top category in all categories. But you have to look at the bigger picture and understand that You know, we're six and over winning games and what we're doing right now is working. Obviously, there's things to do better and things to, you know, kind of fix on the offensive side of things. But all in all, it's coming together and we're doing things to win games.

Every time I hear him talk, I like him. I like Justin. Justin, he could easily be a diva. I mean, he's unguardable. And his production, he's gone through the Sam Darnold stuff and the Wentz and the Kyler Murray and the J.J. McCarthy. He's gone through a tunnel. And he's always about the team. He's always classy. You know what, man?

There's not a lot of wide receivers. Maybe Larry Fitzgerald. where you say, oh, a wide receiver is one of our best leaders, Calvin Johnson. But we usually look at wide receivers, wildly talented, sort of the NBA position of the NFL. They're on an island. This is what leadership is. Like, hey, man, it's all about wins. He's the most talented guy in the locker room. When he talks, everybody listens, including the coaches and the players.

It's interesting.

So, you know, as a Jets fan, Garrett Wilson, did you see what happened over the weekend?

He got zero.

Targets in the first half, and he kind of lost it on the sideline of Geno Smith, and it kind of went viral. And people are getting on Garrett Wilson's case. I'm like, guys, they're losing, and he's not getting the ball. Of course he's ticked off. Yeah.

Justin Jefferson is saying all the right things because they're winning.

That's right.

If these stats continue and he's not getting the ball and they start losing because we got their upcoming schedule here. Minnesota 6-0, but Colin, they have a brutal four-game stretch ahead where they could easily start losing. And I can see Jefferson, as you see here, Detroit-Buffalo divisional matchup, outdoors at Green Bay, and then the Niners.

But remember, the Detroit secondary, Buffalo secondary. So he may lose, but he'll eat.

He should eat.

I have him in line for a big game this weekend, but I can see him if things go squirrely.

Kyler.

What the hell are you doing? And we talked about it Monday. Kyler's not throwing to the middle of the field.

Like, at all.

Jawan Jennings is ticked off. So it's lower percentage up the sideline throws. Yeah, it's like jump balls all day.

That's not.

So, by the way, Jawan Jennings was slamming his helmet on the sideline.

He's ticked. New addition. There's chatter. He could be moved.

So Minnesota 6-0, but there's some stuff under the surface.

A noisy 6-0.

Yeah.

A little bit of smoke and mirrors.

I like them this weekend.

I think they're going to cover. Yeah. J-Mac with the news.

Well, that's the news.

And thanks for stopping by.

The Herdline News.

So I saw this story where Patrick Mahomes this week had to kind of confront Josh Simmons' left tackle because Josh Simmons had his feet up on a table. And Andy Reid asked him to take the feet off the table. And Simmons said, well, it hurts. My back hurts. And then Andy Reid said, well, then go to the training room.

And he pushed back and Mahomes came up. It's called leadership and said, get out of here. So, you know, you forget this. Even in the Patriots dynasty, you had Spygate, Alex Guerrero drama, Aaron Hernandez story, Randy Moss at the end, Malcolm Butler not playing in the Super Bowl. That's a lot of drama. Kansas City, Tyreek Hill, they move off him.

The Rasheed Rice, constant nonsense. Josh Simmons left tackle. Kareem Hunt at one point was released. But Brady and Mahomes are the thermostat of the locker room. They set the temperature. This is why I'm critical of Lamar Jackson this last year. Is he practicing? Is he playing? Like, like, Is he here?

The Ravens come out and say they're shocked when on a Sunday is like, I can't play the Baltimore Sun. The local paper released a story. He's falling asleep in meetings. That's not leadership. It's not just I mean, there's a lot of responsibility on Dak Prescott in Dallas. beyond completing passes to CeeDee Lamb on Sunday. Leadership is beyond playing.

And I look at Belichick and Brady, and it was always like, do your job. tune the noise out. And I, I, I look at my homes and read and they literally do not have a left first round left tackle. And they have allowed the fewest sacks in the NFL. That tells you the culture, the leadership, the IQ EQ in that building. My theory in life has always been celebrate infrequently grind daily. And that's why Kansas city in new England, it doesn't matter if you're a dynasty, it's going to get noisy. I mean, Seattle wins a Super Bowl, and Kenneth Walker at the celebration is poking John Snyder in the ribs. Am I getting a new contract? Like, guys, you know, they're pro athletes. They're running backs. They want

to get paid. So New England had all sorts of noise, some of it nonsense, deflategate, some of it non-nonsense, spygate. Alex Guerrero, Malcolm Butler, there's a lot of noise going on. Quarterback has to be the thermostat. And here's Mahomes on all this noise with Josh Simmons this week.

We've had the right conversations now. We're moving in the right direction. And that's why you have to have hard conversations at some point. And I think we've had those. We've had great conversations after. And I think we're moving in the right direction. That will be great for the team.

Next man up. Some young men are not built for long stretches of dependability. It can be a lot of reasons. It can be physical. It can be emotional. It can be immaturity. Not everybody is built to play 20 years in this league and be a great team guy. Thank God Brady and Mahomes are. Coming up next, we've already got one major trade. Keep your eye on another, and he is a total difference maker for, I think, three teams.

That's coming up. Live in L.A., The Herd.

Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays at noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific.

All right, trade red lines in a couple of weeks, but the Bears made a big move today, and I'll get to that in a second. So Josh Downs, a young receiver, about 25 years old, decent receiver, low end one or a good two. He has requested a trade. So DeForest Buckner, Niners, Quentin Nelson, Seahawks. Downs, I want out.

Jonathan Taylor hasn't yet. And I think there's three teams that should be very interested. So the Colts basically in the last couple of days have had a garage sale. And you ever had a garage sale when they're really smart people show up before it opens, before you open the garage attack, the best deals are early, get a refrigerator for 60 bucks. Uh, you know what I mean? You, anybody that's held a garage sale, there's always those people that are there before the garage opens. Um, Three teams look like they're just built for Jonathan Taylor. The Vikings are 6-0 and they have no offense. And they're committed here for the rest of the year to Kyler Murray, who can't see over the middle of the field. Look

at Justin Jefferson's numbers. It is a playoff potential. I mean, the teams are all bunched together. Green Bay looks better now. Detroit, Chicago. Jonathan Taylor, to me, changes the calculus of Minnesota. The second team, the Bengals. Joe Burrows had injuries. OK, he's healthy. Go for it. I think Chase Brown is a great number two back. I don't necessarily think, you know, the Bengals see him as a consistent number one back. And if you want to take pressure off Joe Burrow, there's a reason he can't make the playoffs. They ask him to throw too much, 40, 50 times a game. Well, now you could go Chase Brown as a two number.

Number one is Jonathan Taylor. I think it makes so much sense. Again, in a very tight division, the AFC North, I think Jonathan Taylor to the Bengals makes a ton of sense. And the other one is the New York Giants. Scataboo is a two. He's a hammer, but he's a two. And again, Philadelphia is going to potentially make a move next year and have a better coaching staff. Same with Dallas. Hey, Giants...

This is the first year with Harbaugh. You didn't see yourself as a dominant team year one. Strike when the iron's hot. The Eagles and the Cowboys and Washington are all very, very vulnerable. Skadaboo's a great player, but he's a battering ram. The chances of him playing every game, every NFL season are, I think, very rare. I mean, he just got benched for fumbles. That's a secondary issue.

But I'm telling you right now, I know who would vote for it in New York, John Harbaugh and J.J. McCarthy. And by the way, Jackson Dart, if you could have Scataboo and Jonathan Taylor. So Vikings, Bengals, New York Giants, those feel like great fits for Jonathan Taylor. And he's a calculus changer. You know, y'all want to talk about quarterbacks and receivers. Look at Kenneth Walker. It worked pretty well.

All right. Top of the hour, Greg Cosell. Oh, this is the other thing. So the Bears went and got Jeffrey Simmons, if you're just turning in. dominant defensive tackle to show you out. Here's how smart they are. Ryan poles, Simmons bears face the Seahawks Monday night football. Jeffrey Simmons, now a bear. He just faced Quentin Nelson. Remember the Titans and the Colts played and the Titans won and the Colts said, let's clean house. That's what happens when you lose to the Titans. So Jeffrey Simmons just played Quentin Nelson top guard in the But it turned very quickly.

Jeffrey Simmons ended up six tackles, three solo stops, two sacks, two tackles for loss, a forced fumble, and a fumble recovery. That's against the O-line. And Daniel Jones ended up getting sacked a half dozen times. So this is chess over checkers. Ryan Poles just watched Jeffrey Simmons play Quentin Nelson. Seattle gets Quentin Nelson, who's excellent. And Jeffrey Simmons kind of worked him. And so I think this is, I mean, here is one of Jeffrey Simmons sacks this year. I want you to watch this video for our TV audience.

Just watch this. This is ridiculous. We don't have sound on it. Just watch this sack by Jeffrey Simmons. It's against the Texans. That literally looks like the 300 pound kid in a lower division of high school. You know, the one time when you have a small high school football league and there's one division, one player. He's just different.

We've had four or five D tackles, interior D linemen, in my life that we talk about, and Simmons is one of them, and you just don't watch him play. Just like Aaron Donald, when he was with the Rams, when he was with the St. Louis Rams, we knew he was great. We didn't watch the games. Then he goes to the L.A. Rams, and there's highlights all over the Internet. You're like, oh, my God, this guy's unbelievable. So, yeah, the Bears have him. A couple of low first-round picks and a fourth-round pick. Don't have a problem with it.

So Simmons is only 29. By the way, you say, well, he's getting old. Cameron Hayward is 37 and still a baller. All pro last season. Calais Campbell still playing at 40. I think he had a sack a few weeks ago, if I remember. Reggie White was a pro bowler at 37. Here's a great example. Leonard Williams... It's the only old Seahawk.

12 years, he never gets hurt. There are these guys that are physically, like Aaron Donald's just built different. It's not weight room stuff. The great defensive tackles, like I remember watching Leonard Williams with a Seahawk as a freshman at USC. Freshman or sophomore, they played Syracuse. And Lane Kiffin invited me into the pregame chat the day before.

They got in, like I came up Friday. And Leonard Williams... And I know one of Leonard's best friends, Leonard Williams. His friend always says this. He's not really a locker room or weight room guy. He's like one of the nicest guys in the league. But his friend, Scott, he always says what's crazy is everybody here is, you know, in the weight room all day and they're eating all this protein. And Leonard's just crazy. hard worker, great guy.

A lot of it's just like Jeffrey Simmons, Aaron Donald. This was like some of these Calais Campbell. Sometimes the man upstairs just gives you a break. So these defensive tackles, you think, ah, they get worn down. No, we got a lot of examples. Guys played for a long time. I mean, I always said Aaron Donald retired, not because he wasn't great. He got tired of being triple teamed.

So there you go. Um, By the way, with Milwaukee winning last night, with the Brewers justifiably dominating, it was another bad night for the doomsday crowd. You know the doomsday crowd. NIL. It's bad. The rich will only get richer in college football. Oops. The opposite has happened. It democratized the sport. And when the Dodgers won the World Series, oh, small market teams, low payroll teams have no chance. Really?

Rays Brewers World Series, White Sox Guardians, deep playoff runs. The opposite happened. In the 35 years I've been a sportscaster, if you want to be a sportscaster, here's what you should do. Don't talk a lot of hockey. And number two, whenever there is this group of doomsday guys, the end is coming. The end is near. Go against it. Push back.

Remember what? Fire Ryan Day. 20-point favorite. Lost to Michigan. Fire Ryan Day. Ohio State won a natty and blitzed teams. I think they won by an average of 17 points. I remember that Tennessee volunteer game. You're like, is... What am I watching? Fire Ryan Day crowd. NIL is going to kill college football. Small market teams. You can't compete.

You see this in Hollywood with that obsession and backroom. Big payrolls don't guarantee anything, and smaller payrolls rarely limit you. Do you know the Milwaukee Brewers? Think about this. The Milwaukee Brewers, over the last couple of years, have allocated less money, last five years, have allocated less money to payroll than the Colorado Rockies. Rockies are a AAA baseball team.

Brewers won 26 of their last 31 games. I don't want to hear about your payroll. That's your problem. And I also think playing in smaller markets is an advantage. The media is not as cynical. It's not as large. It's not as snarky. It allows your teams, and Milwaukee was a great example of this, to be very flexible.

Your front office can be flexible. You can play free and aggressively. Aggressive baseball is hard to defend. If you have a bad weekend, it's not the end of the world. You watch Aaron Boone, every decision over a big Red Sox series is micromanaged, magnifying glass. Pat Murphy doesn't deal with that. So it's just, I'm not saying payroll can't help you. But payroll doesn't guarantee anything. And smaller markets, I think there's an advantage. They don't have a single, they don't have a, I talked to Mark Few, the Gonzaga basketball coach about this. He said, I'd rather coach at Gonzaga than UCLA. He says at Gonzaga, I can recruit anybody I want to. At UCLA, unless you're getting four and five star guys, your recruiting class in the

off season is getting picked apart. He's like, I just go get the best basketball players that fit Gonzaga. And he's like, nothing against the UCLA job, but he goes, Gonzaga, I'm not second-guessed by a large media, a snarky media. I recruit who I recruit who fits our system. And sometimes it's a three-star guy from Dallas, not the five-star guy from Los Angeles. We're looking for a specific type of player who fits our system. So I think the advantage to the Milwaukees and the Tampas, but especially Milwaukee, players love playing there. It's not the Packers' situation. Players love playing in Milwaukee. And you're not getting picked apart.

You can play free. You can play aggressive. I found Milwaukee to be as embraceable as any World Series team in years. So grateful, so humble, so aggressive, so deserving.

Excellent.

THE HERD - HOUR 1 - BREAKING NEWS: BEARS MAKE A HUGE TRADE!

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